The Legacy Of The Uchiha
by Roland Of Creon
Summary: He survived, He had lived through it, only to find his family almost completely dead as well as most of his friends, but he had to survive. For his own sake... and Sasuke's.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Shin"

* * *

**-Character switch-**

**Line bar:Time or setting switch**

"_Thinking"_

"Talking"

**"Jutsu"**

"_**Summon/demon talking'**_

* * *

-**Shin-**

The light of the new day began to hit his eyes hard, the droplets of fresh forest dew began to wake him up to feel dull pain everywhere over his body.

"_Must have blacked out."_

The wounded Uchiha had finally woken up. He looked up to see a familiar broken branch above him amongst the forest. It seems he had been knocked out after trying to jump onto a branch that broke.

If he was in top shape he might have landed right, but he had his wounds to thank for all this.

Chakra exhaustion, four broken ribs, half a concussion, severe burns down his entire right arm, internal damage that reminded him of getting hit by one of his best friends jutsus, and a twisted ankle.

Shin Uchiha was not feeling at his best.

He had been running for days threw the thick forests just to try to evade his captors, now all he could do was try to keep himself conscious.

"_Don't black out!"_The Uchiha tells himself, the pain of his wounds even when he wasn't moving was almost enough to send him into shock.

He was so close now, barely a mile away from the village, He figured his captors hadn't followed him this deep, if they had they would have gotten him while he was unconscious on the the ground.

"_Almost there."_ He assures himself as he looks on through the forest towards a set of familiar mountains.

Eleven years.

Eleven years in hell and he was so close to getting back.

He pulled himself up, barely pushing himself off the ground the man jumped up to one of the tree branches making sure to land correctly and not twist his damn ankle further. He had almost lost whatever balance he had as the branch began to shake under his weight.

He had to remind himself that he hadn't a single drop of chakra to use for this. Even most genin learned the tree climbing exercise, it helped them jump to tree to tree as well without falling over or slipping.

Without chakra however, you were liable to fall off anytime thanks to gravity.

He made his first unsteady jump, barely catching himself on the next branch over he used his momentum and pulled forward making the next few jumps easier as he started a small pace toward the village.

His will wasn't broken, he had escaped after so long just because of that fact, hoping beyond hope to get back to the village and find his family and friends in Konoha. He had so many things he had to do, he had to apologize to the Hokage who was right the entire time, he had to apologize to his brother and mother for worrying them, he had to find all of his friends and have drinks with them like it was old times.

He barely remembered all their faces, but he remembered their voices like he was hearing a familiar bell.

Her voice most of all.

She told him that she didn't care about him, she told him to go away, away from her and...her child.

It hurt him to think about it, but the thought also gave him strength as well, sometimes even your worst memories of people can help you, and in the end he loved her anyways, her...and her children.

His stomach was almost eating itself out, he had no time to hunt while they were on his tail so he hadn't eaten anything for something close to a week.

"_Ah, fresh dango..."_Shin thought as he traveled threw the air_"...oh shit!"_

Shin was distracted at the thought of all that good Konoha food and slipped off another branch. As he hit what felt like seven branches on the way to the ground he still had thoughts of fresh dango in his head.

Until he hit the ground that is.

After a brief moment of groaning his pain out on his stomach his old ninja instincts kicked in and he took inventory of wounds.

"_Well I'm conscious"_He thought sarcastically_"That's a start"_

He felt the side of his head to find that it was bleeding badly, he could already begin to feel his vision blur a little as a result, he had a nice host of cuts from falling down through the branches but other than the ones on his burnt arm they didn't feel that much worse than the rest.

He pulled himself up one last time looking up to see the large gates of Konoha.

There was no way he was this close to them now, and as he watched the leaves begin to swirl through the air and the brightness the village seemed to be offering him he had a very different thought.

"_I'm dead, aren't I?"_Shin thought as he stepped forward.

Every painful step felt like an anchor pulling him back. He pulled through as much as he could, but in the end the strain of movement itself proved to much for him and slowly he fell face forward.

The last thing Shin saw was the leaves falling with him toward the ground.

* * *

**Hello, it's nice to address the people reading this story, so lets get this started!**

**Ahem!**

**Honorable readers:**

**If you are reading this your are officially reading the second version of this chapter. This is my first fanfiction story and also my first dabbling into this kind of genre of writing, I hope as TLOTU keeps going on I become a better writer in this style. I will be updating chapters as i go and of course find different mistakes.**

**Please review.(Trust me. I need you to humble me.)**

**With future thanks:**

**Roland.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Man Comes Around

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto... or do I?

* * *

Chapter One

"The Man Comes Around"

* * *

-**Kotetsu-**

It had begun as a boring yet peaceful day in the leaf village. The sun was shining, the air was cool and the spring wind was breathing new leaves as well as new life into the village.

"_Boring. As. Hell."_One chunin thought to himself.

Kotetsu Hagane was adjusting that bandage on his nose that hid an old scar as he sat watching over the massive open gates of Konoha.

Most chunin like him felt bored taking a job like this. Babysitting the entrance of this place felt like a genin job. If anything would happen it would probably hit somewhere else other than the front door anyways.

He hated jobs like this, he was always felt like he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"_Where the action isn't."_He thought to himself bitterly.

As a village chunin he and his partner were assigned to watch the population and be a work-between the normal civilians and the ninja, so they helped the rest of the village whenever they could.

Doing the odd D rank and watching the front gate.

It did help Konoha in the short run, but after rescuing that damn cat Tora for that women almost fifty times made Kotetsu begin to wish he didn't have this job.

-**Izumo-**

Kotetsu's partner sitting next to him in the little guard station was completely fine with a job like this.

Izumo Kanizuki had been saddled with Kotetsu to slow the man down a little and bring him back down to earth, he had been too brash in his missions and the Hokage thought he would be assigned better to a two man team that dealt with smaller parts with the village.

Izumo had seen too much in his time, his partners mission record had been a massive load of C ranks and a handful of B ranks, but Izumo had seen a bit harsher action than that, before he was set up with Kotetsu he had accompanied a few special jonin on a couple of A ranks and even an S rank mission.

He had seen the worst of it, being one of the cleanup men after both the Kyuubi attack and the Uchiha massacre not too long ago.

After that he questioned whether he really still wanted to a ninja or not.

So the Hokage looked at both of the men years ago and thought that both the chunin would be suited better serving in the village.

In truth however even he was a little bored.

Until Kotetsu noticed something.

"Hey Izumo?"His partner asks.

"Ya?"Izumo says brushing his bang away from his eye.

"Who's that?"Kotetsu asks pointing at a figure at the gate.

From the little booth both chunin looked to the opening of the gate to see a man standing there.

Izumo thought the guy was just looking into the village until the man fell face forward onto the ground.

"What the hell?"Izumo says getting up from his chair.

Both of them jumped over to where the man lay.

Izumo saw his partner had his kunai out as he looked at the gate, he probably thought that this could have been a diversion for an attack so he was ready for anything.

"_A little jumpy eh Kotetsu?"_His partner thought as he came upon the unconscious man.

Izumo took a knee and looked over the man, upon closer inspection he was wearing a thick black ragged shirt and tattered pants with no shoes. His long black spiky hair covered his entire head on the ground. He could hear the mans strained breaths even when he was face down.

Then Izumo carefully rolled him over, revealing how badly he was injured.

Just from the first look Izumo could see it was bad, the mans head was bleeding and his entire right arm was burned so badly the skin had turned black, the mans face was dirty and covered in blood from the head wound. Along with that he was saddled with a dozen small cuts over his arms and legs.

"_Haven't seen wounds this bad for a while."_

The injured man looked malnourished, like he had been fed scraps for years. Izumo's first though was that this man might have been an escaped prisoner, but taking another glance at his wounds told him that no prison was that brutal.

He shook the man only to confirm he was completely unconscious.

"Kotetsu, report to the Hokage"Izumo said grabbing the unconscious man"I'll bring him to the hospital"

"Who do you think he is?"His partner asks, helping drag the man up.

"Could be an escaped prisoner..."Izumo grunts as soon as he gets a good grip under the mans legs"...or some missing ninja."

"Why do you think he's a missing ninja?"His partner questions.

"Look at his arm."Izumo says nodding his head towards it"What natural fire only burns one body part that bad and leaves the rest fine?"

Kotetsu's face lit up, finally after all the grunt work they might actually have found something interesting on the job. He started forming hand signs and soon disappeared in front of his partner in a wisp of smoke.

Izumo sighed. If he was lucky he could get this guy to the hospital before the Hokage could burst in looking for answers.

* * *

**Dear Readers.**

**I will be updating each chapter before I upload any new ones, but I will say that I've written up to twenty chapters that I've had no real time to edit so far, but since I've now come into a large bit of time recently I have been able to start updating more.**

**Thank you, and I hope to hear from you guys more in the future.**

**Your friend.**

**Roland.**


	3. Chapter 2: Paradise Lost

Disclaimer:I have never owned Naruto I swear! No please! Not the filler again! Please anything but the filler!

* * *

Chapter Two

"Paradise Lost"

* * *

-**Hiruzen**-

"_That's it...move the towel..."_

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Sarutobi had been woken out of a half decent dream by the knocking on the door, he rearranged things to look more like he had been in the middle of paper work rather than the fact that he fell asleep reading one of his old students books.

"I have urgent news Hokage-sama!"He hears Hagane yell.

"Come in then!"Sarutobi says after he reorganizes everything after a moment of throwing that book in one of his desk drawers.

Kotetsu entered immediately, Sarutobi saw the chunins face beaming with pride as he stood at attention in front of the Hokage's desk.

Sarutobi turns to his serious tone."Report, Kotetsu?"

"We found a man passed out in front of the gates of Konoha, Hokage-sama."

The first second the Third heard it he thought nothing of it, just a simple trespasser.

"_Probably some drunk merchant that had to many drinks..." _He thought until Kotetsu explained further.

"We didn't think much of it until we saw the mans wounds"Kotetsu said in a half impressed tone"Whoever the bastard is he got his way here after being hit by a fire jutsu on his arm and his head bleeding badly."

Sarutobi's eyes lit up with possible ideas, if the man was hit with a jutsu then he was probably a ninja, then again he could just be a random civilian that got burned badly in a fire of some sort, but even someone who wasn't a ninja could figure out what a jutsu victim looked like.

"Where is he now?"The third asks as he stands up.

"My partner took him to the hospital, he should guarding him now."The chunin answered.

Sarutobi wasted no time as he grabbed his hat and preformed a shunsin leaving Kotetsu in a puff of smoke in his leaders office.

"Hokage-sama wait for me!"

* * *

When the third had teleported to the hospital he tried to figure out where the patient was by searching some for the rooms, hoping to randomly find him. Only to apologize to a few people for invading they're 'privacy'

"_With all the extra work done to make the Konoha hospital more accessible it has made the place quite a lot more confusing."_

After fifteen minutes, the Third swallowed his pride and just went to the front desk and asked for directions.

Even if he was a ninja, it was still hard for a man to ask for directions.

It took Sarutobi less than a minute for him to find the room the stranger had been brought to. After talking to a nurse at the main desk for sometime to find out the man since he was being moved from room to room quick because different doctors needed to see him.

"He's on the third floor in roo-"The nurse began to tell the Hokage as he began to form the hand signs.

He was on the third floor in a poof of smoke, craning his head around quickly to try to see the chunin he had in charge of the situation.

"Hokage-sama!"Izumo says as he looks out from one of the hospital rooms seeing the Third Hokage.

Sarutobi walked over at a brisk pace, his legs were beginning to remind him that he wasn't a young man, he relied on the shunsin too much to teleport him everywhere.

"_I'm getting out of shape"_

"The doctors are going to operate on him in a couple of minutes"Izumo says as soon as his superior passes him."They say if they hadn't gotten to him sooner that we might not be having this conversation."

"What do we know?"Sarutobi asks as soon as he comes into the room, hes bombarded with the smell of burnt flesh.

The man in question was laying on a bed, had been bandaged up haphazardly by the doctors before the surgery, but you could see that his head bandage was beginning to turn red from the blood loss. The doctors hadn't bandaged his arm, showing Sarutobi the full severity of his burns.

A burn as bad as that that was what ninja called a "Gamble wound".The reason why they called it that was because it was a gamble on what the doctor might have to hack off after he's done with you.

"Kotetsu and I saw him standing at the gate when he suddenly fell"He explained with his arms crossed"Looking at the guy you can see how bad some of those wounds are."

Sarutobi could tell alright. He came in for a closer look, this man was either a ninja or he fought ninja for a living.

"The doctors looked over him and told me the full report"Izumo said grimly."Along with that burnt arm and his head, his ribs are smashed up in a couple of place's, according to the doctors he hasn't eaten anything for days, they tried to see if he had chakra exhaustion but strangely they said they couldn't tell"

"They couldn't tell?"The Third repeats.

"Yes, they don't know why yet, but according to them its as if his chakra system is both empty and full at the same time."Izumo tried to explain."His body acts like it's going through chakra exhaustion but the docs tell me he still has about ninety percent of it in reserve."

The Hokage was fascinated by something so strange, especially of a random stranger that walked into the village.

He saw something in the mans bloodstained face, something he barely recognized between the blood and his black spiky hair, it reminded him of a scene he had seen before in this exact hospital.

"_It was...right in the middle of the war..."_

It wasn't until a shot of pain made the man jerk suddenly, making him utter one simple word for Hiruzen and Izumo to hear.

"Konoha..."

Sarutobi moved over to see if the man possibly woke up, but he found the man had just talked through his painful sleep.

Something caught Sarutobi's eye however, when the man moved a part of his shirt moved away exposing the top of his chest.

Sarutobi grabbed the ragged shirt and opened it immediately revealing the injured mans chest.

Despite the fact that Hiruzen could see where all of his ribs had broken, he could also see a massive trail of old scars that ran across the mans chest.

The most noticeable of all, a large jagged pink skinned bastard that started at his collarbone and ended at the bottom of his stomach, making you wonder what kind of instrument could have done something like that.

It had suddenly hit Sarutobi like an earth jutsu involving boulders.

The mother of all gamble wounds.

"Shin"

"_It's impossible_" the Hokage thought immedietly, he had been declared dead years ago, by his best friends, his brother and even his entire family before the massacre, but now here he stood, half dead.

"Tell the doctors that he is to given the best medical treatment possible"Sarutobi declares.

"Hokage-sama?"His chunin questions.

"We have found something lost to us long ago, a comrade we all cared about but forgot..."Sarutobi says wistfully.

The Third hated himself for a moment, they had forgotten about Shin after the Kyuubi attack, and with the Uchiha massacre the thought of him being alive never occurred to him at all. It never occurred to anybody.

"Guard him and make sure he gets treatment immediately"Sarutobi says as he gets ready to teleport away.

"Where are you going Sir?"Izumo asked confused at all of this, he felt like he been left out of a bit of the conversation.

"I'm calling the council together"Sarutobi says forming the last bit of the shunsin seal"We need to address this issue immediately."

**-Izumo-**

Just as soon as Sarutobi appeared his partner came bursting into the room.

"Did...I...miss anything?!"Kotetsu asks out of breath from running over.

Izumo just shrugs to his partner.

* * *

**-Shin-**

As he regained part of his consciousness the first thing in Shins felt was something sticking into his arm, the feeling reminded him of the drugged out torture he endured for years.

He jerked awake immediately just from the memory.

Hospital sheets, white walls, and that strong smell of disinfectant.

He recognized the walls of Konoha hospital, he had been here many times to see sick allies, and on the rare occasion he was here himself back then, not because he rarely got wounded, because whenever he was wounded before they would try to tape him up on field more.

"_To old to gamble now"_He though to himself as he looked down at his chest.

He rubbed his massive scar on his chest, a wound reminding him how far being a cocky Sharingan user would get you.

They had done some kind of operation on him, he felt his forehead to find it bandaged, nothing but dull pain, his arm still hurt like absolute hell though.

Other than the IV, they had put his burnt arm in a heavy cast. Shin was scared to even look at the covered arm, hoping that he kept all of his fingers after a jutsu like the one that hit him.

He felt along his ribs, they had healed up to a certain degree but would take some time to set.

He was okay, moving was out of the question but he was okay.

He felt ultimate relief, He had made it, every single hope he had running through hell was now within reach.

"I'm home"He sighs out loud.

He was almost lost in that little slice of bliss he had until he heard someone walking just outside his hospital room. The door began to open suddenly and Shins old instincts kicked in, telling him to fake being asleep to fool the intruder.

However, the trespasser saw through it easily.

**-Hiruzen-**

Sarutobi had been the Third Hokage and protector of the village for more years than he ever planned.

He wasn't about to be fooled by someone trying to fake sleep.

"You do know that you snore, right Shin?"Hiruzen says walking over to his bed.

The Uchiha's onyx eyes opened out of pure revelation.

"Old man?" he says turning his head towards him, he realized that he let his little cover down.

" I do not snore."

"That got you though"Sarutobi chuckled to himself"By the way your right, you don't snore."

It was strange for Hiruzen to see that Uchiha smile after so many years, especially from a surprise like Shin Uchiha, but just looking at him smile mixed with the mans mannerisms told him that this Uchiha was the genuine article.

**-Shin-**

"_Years later and the old man still knows how to stick it to me"_

The moment had slowly descended into comfortable silence, Shin was trying to figure things out a little, like the fact why was it the former Hokage talking to him and not anyone from his family?

"Shin, I know you must have a lot to tell me, but first I must tell you certain facts first?"

Shin was barely surprised, this kind of thing usually happened when he woke up after blacking out, after fighting, drunk or otherwise.

**-Hiruzen-**

Sarutobi tried to believe in honesty, but it was extremely hard for him at the moment , he thought if he straight up lied to Shin he would only stroke the fires of hate more within what was left of the Uchiha clan.

So before he laid all of it on the table, he had to deal with the most pertinent fact first.

"As is the will of the council, you have officially been made the head of your clan"The Third stated to the bedridden Uchiha.

**-Shin-**

If anything was going to blindside Shin. it was that.

A million thoughts swam through his head all at once until it settled onto a certain fact.

"Did my brother die?"

The idea of Shins brother dying leaving him the head of another clan being apart from the Uchiha would have been almost the ultimate practical joke on him, he didn't get along with his brother and the Uchiha had treated him with indifference.

"No"Sarutobi said with a hint of disappointment in his voice"Your brother is actually very much alive and active, your being made the head of the Uchiha clan"

Something was caught in Shins throat, the thought it was a joke on the old mans part at first, but his tone of voice said otherwise.

"_It literally can't be..."_Shin tried to make sense of it all.

"_...unless"_

"Why am I head of the clan Sarutobi-sama?"Shin asks, something caught in his throat, he knew something was going on here, he was an Uchiha almost out of technicality, why would they ever make him clan head?

**-Hiruzen-**

Hiruzen heard the dread in Shins voice. The Hokage feared saying it, telling him the absolute truth would spark the curse of hatred beyond anything in the Uchiha, but as soon as he would heal and walk into the village Sarutobi knew Shin would find out the Uchiha clans fate.

Sometimes the truth hurts the person telling it as well.

"Shin, you have been made the clan head because you are one of the last three Uchiha left"

**-Shin-**

Everyone.

Everyone he loved.

Gone within one sentence.

He just lay back into his bed, his eyes wide open, he felt like the bed had begun to suck him in.

She was dead, her kids,dead, his mom, dead.

It wasn't rage yet, it couldn't be rage that filled Shin, merely disbelief, it was something he had to see with his own eyes, something he needed to know himself.

"Leave me Sarutobi."

**-Hiruzen-**

A simple and direct command, Sarutobi had never heard the young man be so firm in his life, but he understood, he knew that if he tried to talk to him now it would bear no fruit.

He had seen the same thing in Sasuke after the massacre, when something this emotionally changing happened an Uchiha needed time to... accept things.

He couldn't even begin to tell him anything else until he accepted that first fact.

As the Third Hokage left he looked back at Shin laying on the hospital bed and hoped that he wouldn't do anything stupid.


	4. Chapter 3: The Day The World Went Away

Disclaimer:If I did own Naruto or its characters why the hell would I be writing fanfiction in the first place?

Chapter Three:

"The Day The World Went Away"

* * *

Shin waited till nightfall, until hospital visiting hours were over and things were quite to begin his plan.

He ripped the IV out of his bandaged and burnt arm, it hurt too much to move it so he let it lay limp beside him as he got up from the bed.

"_Come on Shin, work through the pain"_The Uchiha commands himself.

The hospital window was easy enough to get open, the tricky thing would be jumping down two stories and trying to get to the Uchiha district without being seen.

"_I have to know...and I have to see it"_

It wasn't a matter of trusting Sarutobi, if what he said was true Shin would need to see it anyways for himself, then he would track down Minato and find out how something like this could happen.

Looking down at the steep fall he reminded himself that his chakra reserves were still low and partially damaged after all the experiments done to him, so trying to make a bunch of jumps on top of buidlings while in pain was a gamble on how well he could control what chakra he had left.

The other idea he had was to simply jump to the ground and henge himself into someone else, he wasn't sure how well he could hold a decent henge so it was another risky decision.

_"Sakumo-sensie's first lesson"_Shin remembered as he looked down at the dark street._"Stealth over spectacle"_

He chose the second option, thinking that if any other ninja saw him roof jumping they could probably capture him instantly, while disguising himself didn't hold the same problem for him as long as could hold himself up.

He jumped from the window onto a small tree and flipped down into a semi-painful roll onto the ground with his hospital gown flapping all over.

"_Breezy out here_"

Before he died his Sensei told him that a random henge needed to be a mix of simplicity and creativity, if it was too simple ninja would pick up on it. Too creative and everyone would notice it.

So he was taught a deft touch with creating a disguise, simply colored clothes was the first thing he thought of, with some nice brown hair and tanned skin maybe.

"Maybe a civilian worker?"He thought to himself

He encountered his first problem trying to create hand signs, his hands had practiced the movement so much that he didn't remember the fact that his arm was burned almost back to hell when he moved his hands together out of instinct.

It almost made him scream out in pain.

So he hid for a moment in the dark of the night trying to move him arm up to make the simple signs for an academy level jutsu.

_"If the Uchiha clan could see me now"_

After painful trial and error he had finally done it, he made himself look like a simple construction worker wearing civilian clothes, now its just a matter of getting started.

The Uchiha district wouldn't be that far. Luckily there weren't that many people out tonight, once Shin passed the market district he thought it would be a short walk to the old Uchiha compound.

It was hard for him not to get nostalgic walking through Konoha at night. He had been to this district for its great selection of bars, weapons stores and even a couple of restaurants as well before all this happened, it seems not much had changed since his incarceration.

"Watch out!"Shin suddenly hears a voice shout from behind him.

He barely has enough time before something crashes directly into his burnt arm under the henge.

His teeth clenched as he looked down at the perpetrator.

He looked down to see a little spiky blond haired boy on the ground after bumping into him, he was holding a large water balloon in one hand and rubbing his shoulder with another.

"Stop him!" Shin hears another voice come into the picture, he looks behind to see two ANBU running his way.

_"Shit"_

He went through a dozen thoughts, he could try to escape but in his condition they would capture him almost instantly, he barely had a trickle of chakra so any jutsu were out of the picture.

He raised his only good arm poised and ready to attack with some good old fashioned Uchiha taijutsu until the boy had gotten up and distracted him.

"Sorry! Got too run!"He says passing him, he looks back to the ANBU that had gotten closer to see them dripping with water as they ran past him.

All that tension left Shins body. Those ANBU were after the blond boy and not him, if he wasn't so relieved he probably would've laughed at the situation, he was especially impressed at the speed that kid was going, to be leading the ANBU on a chase was no small feat by a kid of his size, plus the fact that he hit elite ninja with water balloons.

_"I don't know why, but that kid reminds me of someone."_The disguised Uchiha though to himself.

He went back to lumbering back toward the district, and after a few minutes he finally reached his destination.

The wall surround the Uchiha district were old and cracking, the openings had been covered in yellow tape.

He needed to go in there.

Shin haphazardly jumped over the wall, just barely getting over it with the assistance of his good arm.

He was already beginning to feel the sting of chakra overuse, as soon as he climbed down he finally dropped his henge.

The Uchiha clan had all been stuck in a small district on the side of the village,Shin remembered the looks of the people of Konoha, he knew that it was hard to trust an Uchiha, but the Third and even Fourth Hokage showed an enormous sympathy for they're clans struggles.

The clan though nothing of they're sympathies, he remembered being told of the prestige of both the clans he represented out of his birth, and he began to hate the idea of prestige by birth.

"_What prestige was left here?"_

The streets were completely silent, no lights, no sound.

It reminded him of a graveyard

He felt like a ghost looking through a fog. As he tried to sense for anything he began to walk forward through the compound.

"There's the Uchiha Senbie"Shin spied upon the tiny little shop poised right at the tip of the district"Teyaki and Uruchi owned that place, always talked about having a kid."

With every building it got more desperate, more frantic, his heart began to crumble after he came to the police building, his tears coming out while he wanted to scream.

He sat there leaning next to the Konoha military police.

"_I should have been here"_

Shin didn't think he could have saved them, but his hope was that if he was going to die that he would've done it with his family.

With her.

"Please!" he yelled into the night, his silent plea to the ghosts of the Uchiha, he stood there the clan head of absolutely nothing, his family and clan gone.

He wiped his tears and soon he began to walk.

He needed some more air, maybe to get out of the village and into a forest, maybe there he could just sit for a while.

Just sit until the end.

He passed her house along the way out of Konoha, she had meant so much to him and now her and her son were gone.

Then like a distant hope a light on the second floor flickered on.

"_Her room!_"

His heart skipped a beat as the light turned off.

Was she here, could she be?

He didn't let himself think as he slunk over to her door, opening it ever so gently as not let it creak open.

Her house was always so clean except for her sons bedroom, that boy may have been a prodigy but he couldn't stop leaving his books and scrolls around his room.

He looked around in the darkness, he felt like he stepped into the past, remembering how he sneaked around this very house before, during the years before his incarceration.

_"All the Uchiha money behind them and there stairs still creaked"_He thought remembering how he jumped after trying to sneak out one night, only to step on one of the stairs making it creak so loud it almost woke everyone in the house up.

He was slow walking up, making sure his feet didn't push down too fast on the wood he walked up to the second floor.

He walked over to her room, his heart beating in his ears and the adrenaline leading him he grabbed the handle of the door and opened it slowly.

He had seen the room a million times, simple elegant and organized, something any Uchiha would be envious of.

There on the bed lay a little boy curled into a little ball upon the bed.

Shin walked closer to see the him curled in the middle of the bed in the dark of the night.

In that moment he saw it, the boy snuggling between his parents after a bad dream, the only thing missing was the parents.

He truly didn't know how to feel, the boy was defiantly an Uchiha, the dark hair ,the pale skin, but there was no way this could be Itachi, he was too young.

Was this kid another one of her children?

The boys face was troubled in his sleep, his eyelids clenching together as the boy shivered.

It was the first time he felt anything like it, but he had some weird urge to hug the boy.

He told himself it would be a bad idea, but what Shin did do was he tried to cover the small dark haired boy in the blanket around him.

It was tough doing it with one hand and trying to make sure that he didn't wake up the kid, it would be awkward enough trying to explain why he was here, or why he was wearing a hospital gown.

"_The kid would probably think I was crazy anyway._"

After covering the boy he walked out and begin to close the door behind him as he took one last look.

It looked like the kid stopped shivering from what he saw, but he wished he could do more, just looking at him brought up terrible memories.

"I'm sorry Mikoto"Shin says painfully as he closes the door.

He slowly mad his way down the stairs step by step coming to the doorway, as soon as he opened the door we was welcomed to the sight of Three ANBU looking at him.

"The Hokage requests that we escort you to his office"One ANBU with a bear mask on said to him.

He had no fight in him, but that didn't mean he didn't feel any rage, once he got to the bottom of this by speaking to Minato he could figure out where he would fit in all this...

..and who he should be angry at.

* * *

The ANBU let him henge himself so he wouldn't have to be dragged through the village in only a hospital gown as they walked over to the fourths office.

_"There it is"_

He looked at the Hokage's office just above the academy expectantly as it came into view, back when he was around it was rare that the Fourth would be working so late, he was always spending lot of time with his wife.

He remembered Minato before he became the Fourth, despite being a Uchiha he had excepted Shin as a friend when the rest of the his clan wouldn't even look at him except for Mikoto.

Minato told him that he thought that Shin was the future of the Uchiha, Shin thought back then it was just a good joke.

The twist of irony showed him how funny that joke was by making him head of his near extinct clan.

The ANBU had showed him into the building, once inside he removed his henge, he thought it would be kinda funny now, even with all of this he could probably get a chuckle out of the blond Kage with the pathetic way he looked now.

He already started thinking of a few jokes now as he dragged himself up the stairs.

He was almost spent, his chakra was too low even from just the use of a couple of henge's and some jumping, whatever those bastards did experimenting on him, it had made him weak.

"_Maybe it was the prison food_"Shin thought to himself sarcastically.

He knew he was hiding his pain right now, the pain helped, helped him focus on the goal right now.

The truth.

He gets to the final door and leans on it with his good arm to open it.

He almost fell as he came in, only keeping himself upright by using the little strength his legs had.

"You shouldn't overexert yourself"Shin heard the old voice say from the desk.

* * *

Sarutobi knew it would come to this, he had ANBU stationed at the hospital just in case Shin would do something, whether you believed it or not, an emotional Uchiha can be quite an unpredictable problem.

"_I never expected him to find Sasuke through"_The Kage thought looking at the exhausted Uchiha. One of his ANBU had reported to him before they had escorted him here, telling him that they found him in the old clan heads house.

"Wheres the Fourth?"Shin asks desperately.

Sarutobi just looks away for a moment, he doesn't need to speak it at this point.

"Wheres Minato!"Shin yells as he begins to understand.

Shin understands and fall to the floor, the flood of emotions hits him all to hard.

"Mikoto,Mother,Itachi"Shin sobs remembering the freshly dead as he rolls onto his back and looks toward the ceiling, the tears sting his eyes again as old scars began to resurface. "Hatake-sensei, Hikari"

Sarutobi sat up looking at the man bleeding his emotions all over his floor, he couldn't do anything about it now, he would have to learn it sooner or later.

* * *

Shin had been surrounded by all kinds of death his entire life, so was the weight of being a ninja, but now, only now did he feel all that weight come down upon him.

He stopped after a few minutes, he waited for the Hokage to say something, to acknowledge some part of his pain.

"Tell me the truth, all of it, every single bit"

* * *

Sarutobi wasn't Shins father, he was the Hokage of the village, but he felt like a father to all of the people under his protection, and he never felt any greater shame then when the Uchiha clan was massacred.

"Do you want to sit up?"Sarutobi asks as he gets out his smoking pipe.

"I'm fine on the floor"Shin Replies lifelessly.

"_How much to say, how much to tell, how much to lie"_Hiruzen thinks to himself as he thinks about the parts of the story he needs to keep out

In the end he was the hokage, and to that end he had to protect the entire village, which included keeping its secrets.

He gathered his edited version of the story in his head and began to explain what exactly happened to Konoha in the past eleven years.

* * *

All Shin could do was lie on the floor, his body glued to the ground in exhaustion. All that was left was to hear every single painful thing that happened in the past.


	5. Chapter 4: Family Effect

Chapter Four:

Family Effect

* * *

The sun was poking out at him beginning another day for Shin Uchiha, he turned to the other side of the hospital bed to ignore it.

After his "talk" with the Third hokage he didn't feel like leaving the hospital room.

He didn't feel like doing much at all.

Eleven years are all it took to take away so much of what he loved, his family, his friends, his love, all of it.

He felt a quite rage being stuck in that bed, still healing, but a part of him was afraid to leave, afraid to walk into that village during the day.

Sarutobi told him that it was his responsibility to be the head of the Uchiha now, to be one to begin the next generation.

He said Shin owed it to the clan.

_"I owed the bastards that barely admitted I was an Uchiha in the first place."_

It was barely any secret that Shin was technically a bastard Uchiha,his sharingan had apparently skipped over a generation that married out of the family, as soon as he gained it during the war he was forced out of his old family that only consisted of his older brother and brought into the Uchiha.

Shin knew it wasn't because of any real family ties, it was the same point every clan with a kekkai genkai had, to keep the power in the clan.

He looked like an Uchiha, dressed like an Uchiha, and had the eyes of an Uchiha, but to them, that barely made you a 'true' Uchiha.

A knock came at the door, Shin was too lost in his thoughts to pay attention to it as it opened.

* * *

Kakashi had a look of surprise hidden under his mask from what he saw walking into the hospital room, he thought the Third might have been mistaken on who he had found, but here he stood.

Shin Uchiha.

"Shin, you awake?"

* * *

Shin recognized the voice in an instant he whirled around on his bed to see Kakashi Hatake standing in the doorway.

"You're alive"they both said in unison.

Shins shouldn't be surprised, he had never asked Sarutobi about Kakashi, he was more concerned at the time over his family.

"Jeez Kakashi, late as ever aren't we?"

Kakashi just shrugged as he grabbed a seat over from the side of the room.

Shin was lost in his memories now, he remembered Kakashi well, like a little brother, his sensei's son had grown up so much that without the mask he looked like a carbon copy of Sakumo Hatake.

"How bad are you wounds"Kakashi asks.

"_Forever cutting to the chase eh Kakashi?"_

Other than his arm, the rest of his wounds had healed spectacularly in the past few days thanks to Konoha medicine, but his arm still stayed in bandages.

Shin turned away every time they changed his bandages,he didn't want to see what became of his arm, he was only grateful that it was still attached and he still had all of his fingers.

"Hurts like hell"Shin replies dryly"Doctors said my chakra coils hadn't really been damaged at all, so I can still perform jutsu"

"That's not what the Third told me from reports"Kakashi said trying to sound sympathetic."According to the reports you can barely use a tenth of your chakra because of your 'incarceration'"

Shin stayed silent at that, he had no answer to really give Kakashi. Years in captivity yielded hundreds of painful experiments done to him in the dark, he knew he could barely use any of his chakra even before the doctors told him, he was more worried about his arm anyways.

Kakashi closed his eye in thought."Does it hurt Shin"He asks.

Shin could only stare at the white bandage.

"It never stops hurting"

Kakashi and Shin shared a bit with each other, Shin began learning about little changes in the village that had happened, little restaurants, rank changes and such.

"Guy still giving you a hard time?"Shin asks with a wry smile.

"I don't think that Guy knows how to stop"Kakashi sighs.

It was fun talking to Kakashi again, it kept his mind away from everything.

Well, mostly everything.

"Kakashi, I need some information"

"What is it?"The copy nin replies.

"What the boy's name?"

* * *

Kakashi didn't need to ask him who he meant, there was only one boy he could be asking about.

"Sasuke"

"Sasuke?"Shin made an amused face"Like the thirds dad?"

The bit of painful laughter had come down after a moment, even after all this good part of a reunion some things had to be discussed.

"Itachi"

Kakashi said the name ominously like it was a curse.

"I don't believe it"Shin says looking back to his arm.

"It's the facts"Kakashi replied"Even Sasuke saw it happen.

"Is that what you going to tell me!"Shin yells"That my family was murdered by my... own family, I knew Itachi, you knew Itachi! He wouldn't do this!"

Kakashi saw Shin clench his teeth in bed as it looked like pain shot through the mans arm.

"I've gotten him too worked up on this issue."Kakashi thought as he watched the pain on Shins face.

Kakashi could only watch, thinking that maybe it was a mistake to come so early during Shins recovery.

Kakashi had to know if it was him and see it with his own eyes, he had owed so much to Shin in the years he had become a shinobi, without Shin he would've never figured out how to control the sharingan let alone master it.

"Shin, when are you getting out of here"Kakashi asks.

"The day I get out they're just going to try to induct me into that damn village council"

"Its your rightful place now"

"My ass it is Kakashi! Even you know that! I've been a prisoner the last few years, the only reason they want me is so they can say they have the Uchiha back into the fold, That's all my damn brother wants!"

Kakashi stood up, he knew he had touched another nerve, but he also knew that Shin had to be pushed a little to understand, after all, its the same thing Shin had done for him years ago.

"Shin please"

* * *

Shin could only glare at Kakashi, who did he think he was telling Shin where he belonged? He only felt like he had one responsibility , and it wasn't to the damn council.

"Bring me something formal to wear tomorrow with long baggy sleeves,"Shin ordered as he turned the other way back across his mattress.

* * *

Kakashi walked out of the room taking out his copy of Icha Icha Paradise from his pocket with a wry smile behind his mask, he knew Shin couldn't stay there forever, The Uchiha was the type to go stir crazy over that kind of thing.

Training with Shin all those years ago was like a far off dream, just another friend lost to the job, and when the entire Uchiha block was scattered like dust in the wind over the Hokage monument the village had made a large conscious effort to forget about the old clan.

* * *

Except for one child that is.

"_One."_

The first shuriken hits on target as he grabs another two from his pocket an flings them behind him

"_Two. Three."_

He doesn't know if he's hit his targets and he doesn't care as he aims his last kunai at the one on the ground coming up at him, he throws it as hard as he can and it embeds itself deep as he lands on the ground.

"_Four."_

Sasuke turned around to admire his handiwork, the first wooden target in the tree opposite to one he jumped off was hit hard enough to break the target off the tree, the other ones hit by shuriken was where he made his first mistake, he had flipped through mid-air to fast and from that one had missed its mark completely and the other was barely in the side of the log.

He pulled the kunai out of the target on the ground, if that one had been a person he would be dead, if it had been Itachi...

Sasuke threw his last kunai out of anger at the unfazed target, he was still sloppy.

Out there Itachi was getting stronger while here, Sasuke only felt like he was getting weaker.

"_Soon that will change." _Sasuke mused.

Sasuke knew that the village respected his place as the last of his clan, he would be taught soon by some of the best ninja that the this village had to offer, he would restore his clan to the honor it deserved.

"You shouldn't overexert yourself"A voice rang out from the trees.

Sasuke turned around violently, trying to grab a kunai from his pocket only to find he had thrown all of them at targets, lucky enough for him because just a few feet away from the him the Third Hokage appeared.

* * *

Sarutobi had not found it odd to find the boy training, he was a ninja after all, no what was odd was the training itself, most ninja at his age would just be trying to hit the bull's eye, Sasuke was the type to try to hit all the bulls eyes he couldn't see.

Sarutobi knew what shadow Sasuke was living in, he only hoped he could change that now.

"I have someone I would like you to meet"

* * *

"You could have gotten me clothes that didn't itch Kakashi"Shin said desperately trying to resist the urge to scratch his body.

When Kakashi came to him in the morning with something to wear he was ecstatic to switch to something other than a hospital gown, now he had switched it out for what looked like what Kakashi wore to his funerals,.

Sure,the sleeves were long enough to hide the bandages on his burnt arm but his other exposed arm itched like hell.

"I can't scratch my good arm with a burnt one Kakashi"

"You could also stop whining"Kakashi deadpanned as they both walked down one of Konoha's busy streets toward the Hokage's office.

It was hard for Shin to see the village like this, to see the people around him he swore he recognized only to remember there was no way they could be that young.

Looking at the Hokage monument stirred something in him, seeing Minato's face on there only reminded him of the pain he tried to keep under the surface.

Minato was the perfect shinobi, a genius unseen in the world since his birth, it had baffled Shin when Sarutobi told him that Minato and his wife had died during the Kyuubi attack and that Minato had killed the Kyuubi in battle which seemed completely impossible the last time he checked.

"Shin?"

* * *

Kakashi saw that Shin was in his own little world while he stared at the Hokage monument, Kakashi understood what he was going through, it was like staring at Rin and Obito's grave.

_"Sometimes you could lose track of time."_Kakashi thought wistfully.

* * *

They had both finally gotten to the Ninja Academy after a small bit of wasted time, hoping they weren't late they started to go ahead to the council chambers.

The Academy building housed a number of small offices as well as council chamber and even a large communications hub, during a war you would have tons of different types of sensory ninja working together to pass battlefield information, but in times of peace a simple animal transport system was accepted.

Shin had passed through this building at least a hundred times since he was a genin, he had seen the stuffed up men of the council not even noticing him or other genin, he had never imagined that he would be on the council.

"I think its time I left"Kakashi said as they came to the council room doorway.

"Traitor"Shin said sarcastically, it barely hid the nervous crack in his voice.

The door wasn't extremely large, only double Shins size, but even with that it still felt like impending doom lied beyond.

He used his good arm to push the door back, making the dead wood groan terribly as he opened it.

"Its good of you to come Shin"He heard the Thirds voice say as he came in to the massive chamber"Its been a long time since the Uchiha spot has been filled"

Shin looked over the chamber at all the people, people at least twice his age that had governed this place for years, he recognized a bunch of clan heads from some of the smaller families like the Akimichi family and the Yamanaka's, he even saw one of his old friends had become the head of their family.

* * *

Hiashi Hyuuga was surprised to see Shin as well. The Third Hokage had told them an Uchiha had been discovered and had taken the mantle of clan head under the advisement of the Hokage, in fact the Sarutobi brought it up asking if anyone had a problem with it last meeting, half of the old clans agreed to it on the spot, but Hiashi wanted to know who was the mysterious Uchiha that had come back from the dead.

"The man cant be older than thirty"Hiashi thought to himself"Then again the Fourth was around his age when he took the mantle of Hokage"

* * *

Shin took the only vacant spot left for him, he figured it's where the old clan head Fugaku used to sit, and from how uncomfortable it was Shin was pretty sure it was his seat.

"Then lets begin the meeting"The Third says bringing in a large stack of papers."The number of acts of vandalism or 'pranks' in the city has increased recently..."

* * *

Shin had never been one to listen to long lectures, and frankly he knew his place here anyways, he was just a figurehead for himself and the boy, so he just sat there and listened as they talked on how much protection they needed for theyre genin traveling to the next Chunin exam.

It wasn't until maybe two hours later of boredom that a subject of himself came up.

"The last item on the list is officially welcoming our new member to the council"Sarutobi says getting Shins attention.

"As you may as well know, years ago the Uchiha were almost completely wiped out, after the massacre the clan itself was barely holding on with the single member it had within this village, but after many years of imprisonment on an important mission trying to infiltrate an enemy faction we have finally found someone we thought lost."

_"Gotta give it to the old man"_Shin thinks,_"He really knows how to softball a guy in"_

"Shin Uchiha has agreed to become the head of his clan, the great responsibility of being a member of the council and the fate of the Uchiha is in his hands."

It was the looks Shin received, there was way too much expected of him at this point, why couldn't there have been another member that survived other than himself, there were fifteen power-hungry jerks in the Uchiha that would have loved to be in this place.

"All the Uchiha lands and properties are granted to you as has the Uchiha fortune"Sarutobi explains looking directly at Shin"We hope that you will become a wonderful member"

Shin really didn't know what to say to all of that, he was still reeling a little from all of this,luckily the universe seems to have a sense of humor.

Right then the door to the council room slammed open like it had been hit with a wind Jutsu.

* * *

Danzo didn't like quite entries.

He had been late dealing with certain 'activites' he took care of in the village, he had told Sarutobi that he would be late to meet this new Uchiha he had found out of nowhere.

He looked around for the new entire into the council, only to see a man In maybe his late twenties sitting in his spot.

An Uchiha definitely, wounded to from the way he covered his arms, his black hair went down to his shoulder and was spiky and unruly, his clothes were a simple funeral black.

Danzo saw something else, there was a hint of recognition in both of their faces, they were neither happy to see each other, only the Uchiha seemed to be relieved to see him

Danzo saw part of the bane of his existence,his lip twitched in a bit of anger for the tiniest of moments, it was hard to keep the kind of anger he had bottled up, especially against a man like Shin.

What Danzo saw was a blemish on Konoha, a man who caused years of in fighting between to clans on who owned him more, he knew because he had been there fighting for Shin.

* * *

What Shin was the only man he thought he could trust.

He saw his brother.


	6. Chapter 5: Family and Foe

Chapter Five

"Family and Foe"

* * *

"How are you holding up these days?"Shin asks as innocently as possible as the rest of the council leaves the room after the meeting finished

"With a cane."Danzo Shimura deadpans as he goes to sit in the seat the Hokage sat in a few moments ago.

Shin saw much of his brother hadn't changed other than teh fact his arm now hung in a sling, he still looked old but on edge, the man was a war hawk to the bone but even Shin could see the man who sat on the sidelines was always trying to protect the village.

It was no secret even to Shin how his brother pined after the Hokage position, he remembered when he was a Shimura that his brother talked about it like it was a forgone conclusion ever since he was born.

Shin liked to remember those days fondly, his brother had always payed attention to his growth when he was young, but as soon as the Uchiha grabbed him Danzo fought for him but in the end had no choice but to give him over to the Uchiha clan.

* * *

Danzo was still looking intently at Shin, the loud boisterous Uchiha had been replaced with this husk of a battered ninja that stood in front of him.

Yet they've given him the position as head of the Uchiha clan within a week, his place within the council certified by the Hokage himself.

"_It took me years to get to where I am now"_Danzo thought in annoyance_"He gets it in a week."_

"You're wounded"Danzo states not trying to dwell on his anger while he looks at the limp arm covered by a long black sleeve.

"Ya"Shin says pulling his long sleeve up revealing his completely bandaged up arm to his brother."Its kinda weird now huh bro?"

Danzo's brow creased in confusion"What do you mean?"

"We match"Shin says as he points to Danzo's bandaged covered arm on his side."Looks like there's finally some family resemblance between us eh?"

Danzo had no patience for this small talk, it felt like a complete waste of time to him, and his brother was only a couple of steps away from being a nuisance, especially as the head of the Uchiha.

"_Then again..."_Danzo thinks over Shins new position._"Maybe I could use this to my advantage"_

Danzo gave his brother a false smile and began talking in a much less formal tone.

"My dear brother"Danzo says with the only smile his brother had probably seen on him in years."Are you going to practice your right to the CRA?"

* * *

Shin was shocked to say the least at the question, it was direct even for Danzo to ask something like that of him.

The Clan Restoration Act had been put into effect years ago by the council as a way for the smaller clans that were dying out to gain more members, put simply certain single members certified by the clan could have multiple wive's to help 'bolster' the next generation.

Shin had forgotten it up to this point, the way some people looked at it the CRA was an insane law put together for the clans to gain power and have 'fun'. However some clans understood that sometimes it was a completely serious issue. No doubt some of the clans wouldn't be here today without the CRA. Hell, some of his old friends were born out of the act.

"Maybe"Shin replies with a shrug."I need some time to thoroughly think about something like that."

* * *

Danzo was happily ready for his reply, he remembered how to manipulate Shin since the moment he was born.

"I would understand brother, but it would be a shame for your clan to end at this point"

A bit of guilt mixed in with a sympathetic tone, Danzo didn't have to even look like he cared about the Uchiha clan, all he had to do was tug at Shins heartstrings.

It was working war hawk saw Shin's face began to tense up as the emotions started to break him down little by little.

_"Oh little brother..."_Danzo thought to himself_"...I forgot how easy you are"_

* * *

However Danzo didn't know how hard Shin truly felt it, he felt like he owed the clan something now, he felt like everything was his fault.

He needed to get out of here.

"It was good to see you bro"Shin says turning his back to him"I hope to see you again soon"

* * *

Danzo finally let his smile fade as his brother walked out the large door of the council chamber, he felt good about himself now, if this little plan worked he could manipulate his brother into creating a whole generation of Uchiha that he could turn into ROOT agents, a new generation of powerful ninja to protect the village.

Danzo's father always said that Shin would grow up into someone important, but Danzo never believed his little brother could amount to more than a speck in the once growing Uchiha clan.

_"For one of the first times in my life, I'm very delighted to have been wrong"_Danzo admitted.

* * *

Shin had known that this was all beginning to get to him as he began to leave the Academy. So he tried to figure out a place he could decompress, a place you could sit and figure out everything.

He was barely out the archway when the Third Hokage appeared in front of him.

"Shin, just the man I was looking for"The Third said with a smile while holding his pipe"I hoped we could speak for a moment."

"Not now Sarutobi."Shin says trying to get past him, but the Hokage's hand gets a fine grip on his shoulder, he pressed just enough pressure to not hurt him but enough to show who was in control at the moment.

"I have someone I want you too meet"The Third says letting go of Shin shoulder as he stepped out-of-the-way to show someone hidden by the Kage's long robe.

* * *

Sasuke was still a little dizzy by the Hokage bringing him along with his shunsin, he had never done it from such a distance and with the Hokage no less.

"I have someone I want you to meet"The Third said as he revealed Sasuke to whoever he wanted him to meet.

He was an adult for sure, he had this surprised expression on his face, like seeing Sasuke was completely and utterly unexpected. His hair reminded him of his brother but instead it was spiky and not in a ponytail.

It was the eyes that finally tipped Sasuke off, those onyx eyes he had wished to see for years, he realized that no matter who this man was...

...he was defiantly family.

* * *

Shin was just looking down at the boy in front of him. His hands attached to his sided in fear. He wanted more time before he met the boy, some chance to learn more about him before he was kick started into his life.

He had fought and killed enemy ninja on the razors edge, he had been hit by jutsu that would have killed lesser men, but it was the sight of this small Uchiha that scared him more than anything.

"What your name?"Sasuke asks looking at the mans onyx colored eyes.

"Shin Uchiha"The adult said nervously to Sasuke.

* * *

Sasuke was just as blindsided as Shin was, he had accepted that he was the last of his clan except Itachi, but now a contradiction stood out to that.

Both of them were the last bit of family they had.

* * *

Sarutobi didn't know who initiated the hug first, it might have been Sasuke going for Shins legs or maybe it was Shin coming over to the boy, What they did know was Shin as the one who began to cry as he hugged the boy.

Sarutobi just looked on at the scene, it was times like this that made the job completely worth it.

It would be a slow process definitely, but Sarutobi hoped that Sasuke would accept Shin as his guardian as Shin would definitely accept responsibility over the boy.

* * *

Shin couldn't sleep.

His hospital bed felt too foreign to him now.

Sasuke had so many questions for him after the hug that Shin didn't have time to answer them all, the boy was eager enough but even Sarutobi didn't think it was the time for questions to be answered.

So Shin walked back to the hospital, his doctor still hadn't given him the last say on his condition, so until then he would have to stay the nights at the hospital.

He would be eating lunch with Sasuke tomorrow, so he and Sarutobi could talk to the boy.

He had Mikoto's eyes, eyes that had haunted him through his years in solitude, even then he remembered that he loved her and...her children.

"_Itachi."_

The boy had seemed to really show promise when Shin was younger, he was a bright boy filled with quiet passion even from a young age until the war came.

Itachi had saw horror no boy his age should have witnessed, Shin was there when it all happened, he watched that boys world crumble around him as war swallowed the boy up.

To this day he still felt guilty because of it.

"_Even so he couldnt have killed the clan,He couldn't have done it"_Shin repeats to himself_"No one has it in them to do that"_

In the back of his mind he knew better, he had seen horrors himself, he knew the world didn't make sense sometimes, maybe Itachi just snapped?

Whatever it was, all he could think was the village he left was like a fleeting dream now, an ideal gone from his past, now he was saddled with a whole new life different from the one he had before prison.

Some part of him believed that maybe this was a dream, another elaborate torture to twist him while he was imprisoned.

Even with that idea he still didn't want to wake up from it, he didn't want to close his eyes to the darkness and open them to only to find the darkness would never go away.

So Shin couldn't sleep.

* * *

Sarutobi smiled to himself at his desk, it was the end of the day, his work was almost complete and he had one last thing to do.

He had sent many ninja to get the Uchiha clan documents as well as the records for Shin and Sasuke, it was a slow process writing up a contract to make Shin bot clan leader and legal guardian of Sasuke. There was every single bit of legal information required plus all of the medical records be checked before for legal reasons.

The clan documents had been old, old enough they were barely keeping from crumbling in his own hands, he had already drawn up a new copy of it, but that was for the new leaf records, in fact Shin would have to sign both copies of it in front of the Hokage to become the true leader of his clan.

He had truly felt like he had killed two birds with one stone, Shin had always felt unneeded in his clan and Sasuke would need someone he could look up too with his family gone and Itachi on the run after the massacre, so it was completely natural to pair them together.

As he finally finished working up the documents he took of his hat and was beginning to get ready to go home, but as he pulled his hat off the table some of the paperwork he had organized had fallen off.

"_Damn! So close to getting out of here without a hitch"_Sarutobi thought to himself.

There were few times that Sarutobi felt old, most of that was when he was bending down to pick something up.

He heard a few muscles in his back crack and wondered if there was a good chiropractor in the village as he looked at the two files he had dropped.

The two files had been the medical information on both Sasuke and Shin, he did a quick look over to make sure the files were still in order when he noticed something odd on both of there files.

"What the hell?"He whispers to himself.

It was something so small, yet so weird.

Just looking at it the Hokage knew it was tempting to look into right now, it would give him new insight into this whole case if his hunch was right, on the other hand he wanted to go home after a long day.

_"Sometimes it Its not easy being Hokage.",_ Sarutobi thought as he collapsed back down into his chair.

"Kotetsu!"The Third called one of his ninja into the room. The nija appeared in less than a second bowing in front of the Hokages desk.

"I want you too bring me the medical records of Fugaku, Mikoto and Itachi Uchiha at once."He orders to the ninja before returning his gaze upon both of there medical files.

The ninja disappeared with his orders as Sarutobi lit his pipe in thought.

"_What the hell are you hiding Shin?"_


	7. Chapter 6:For What Its Worth

Chapter Six

"For What Its Worth"

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki's day had begun as ordinary as it could have for him, He woke up, went to the bathroom, put on his clothes and was ready for the new day.

He read tons of jutsu scrolls while he ate his morning instant ramen cup, tomorrow would be another day at ninja Academy, tomorrow he would once again try to learn to be a ninja from teachers who kept yelling at him constantly. Today would be training and seeing what going on around the village, hopefully not being chased by any ninja this time around.

It wasnt that Naruto pulled pranks, ninja had pulled him in for questioning since he was five years old, even at that age they seemed to have it out for him.

"_The villagers aren't much better"_

It had always bugged Naruto, the looks he got while in the streets from random people, how before he was even pulling pranks he was getting in trouble for nothing.

It troubled him to no end, he tried to make friends but as soon as their parents saw him they wouldn't play with him anymore.

So he made himself a promise, that he would become the greatest ninja that his village had ever seen, he would become the Hokage like the old man and be recognized for who he is.

_"Then they can't ignore me"_

Naruto finished his cup of ramen and thought about eating another while reading jutsu scrolls, but the problem was that the scrolls had always confused him, he had never been good at jutsu that required a ton of hand signs of chakra control.

In the end he figured he would just go to his training spot in the forest and train in his shuriken throwing until lunch, then he might head to Ichiraku's for some real ramen.

"_I can already taste old man Teuchi's ramen now"_

* * *

The owner of the Ichiraku Ramen stand was extremely nervous at the moment.

He expected today to be a normal day in ramen mongering, his daughter Ayame had woken him up and told him to take 'the pill' for his heart problems and get ready to open the store.

Teuchi hated that giant damn pill.

"_It felt like he was swallowing a damn stone."_

He was okay until both the Hokage, a small black haired child and the new head of the Uchiha clan came in for some ramen for lunch.

The Third hadn't come here since he retired, and even Teuchi knew of the brand new head of the Uchiha clan.

So Teuchi was a little nervous starting out his working day.

They had ordered a few simple ramen bowls and Teuchi began slowly working the noodles in the back.

What surprised him most was the age of the Uchiha head, he seemed to look like he was in his late twenties, the guys hair was shoulder length but unkempt and spiky as it touched his back.

_"Couldnt be much younger than most of the jonin I see running around"_Teuchi thinks to himself.

The small boy they had brought with them was probably a Uchiha too from the way he looked, for all Teuchi knew that was the older ones son but he doubted it from the kids age.

He worked hard silently, with celebrities like this at your stand it was a time for a man like Teuchi to show how his noodles shined, he was going to bring his A game ramen to these men.

* * *

Shins stomach had gotten impatient with a terrible rumble as he smelled the great ramen being made in the small kitchen of the ramen stand.

Shin saw Sasuke give him a surprised look, he felt a little embarrassed as the sound of the older Uchiha hungry stomach rung out in the little stand, until his own stomach growled even louder agreeing with the older mans stomach.

The Third and Shin could barely keep in their laughter, it was such a small tiny moment that they had shared. Shin felt like this whole thing was going well.

The delicious ramen came to them in big white bowls, smelling almost divine. The owner handed them each a bowl and chopsticks.

"Itadakimasu"They all said humbly as they began eating.

The morning had started out well, the Third had picked them both up around lunch and brought them here to discuss some business.

Shin had yet to assume the clan fortune, as all the Uchiha's wills had diverted mostly toward the current head of clan he still had to be given the account number, plus the fact he was also given control of every single bit of property in the clans district. So soon he would be signing a giant multitude of documents that Sarutobi would present him with.

"_It's enough to make a man's head spin"_Shin thought to himself as he ate a small sliver of pork from his ramen bowl.

* * *

Sasuke still didn't know how to size the man sitting next to him, he was definitely an Uchiha, the look was unmistakable, but he acted both reserved and open at the same time, even Sasuke could see what the man was thinking over now.

"He holds himself so differently from all the Uchiha I knew"Sasuke thinks while eating some noodles.

"You can sign everything about the inheritance later"The Third explained as he finished his noodles"But there is one issue I would like to talk to both of you about"

Sasuke and Shin both stopped eating their noodles and turned to the Hokage as he spoke to both of them.

"Sasuke has remained a ward of Konoha for a couple of years now, he's stayed this way because of his place as clan heir"The Hokage explained"So I hoped as being the last member of Sasuke's clan that you would look after him, if he agrees that is"

Sasuke wasnt sure what to think, it might be good to have some real family around, some one who could help restore the Uchiha's honor, plus there was something about the man Sasuke liked but couldn't place at the moment.

* * *

Shin knew better about what Sarutobi was talking about. You can't give a kid from a clan with a kekkai genkai to another family, it would seem like a power play to every other clan. Shin had to learn that fact when he was inducted into the Uchiha.

"Only if Sasuke agrees"Shin says to the Third Hokage"I believe he's been self-sufficient long enough to make his own decision on that."

In truth Shin didn't think that, but he had to give Sasuke the choice anyways.

"_I can't force my way into his life"_He said thinking of Mikoto_"He has to make the choice"_

* * *

Sasuke didn't know what to think, a part of him was a little overwhelmed to meet another member of his clan, the other side was hesitant because of how this was all being forced on him.

The thing that decided it for Sasuke was the Sharingan, Shin had to have it, and with that Shin could train him to become stronger.

"_Strong enough to beat my brother"_Itachi's massacre still fresh in his mind.

* * *

Shin and the Kage just waited in silence for the boy to speak, The Hokage probably already figured out the probable answer, but the prospect of the answer itself made Shin nervous.

"If Shin is okay with it, fine"Sasuke says stoically returning to eating his ramen.

Shin decompressed for a moment, this small boy was beginning to take years off of his damn life.

Shin might have said something to Sarutobi, maybe some quick joke or something, but as soon as he opened his mouth a small ball of orange rocketed into seat next to him startling him somewhat.

"Old man Teuchi!"The kid yelled near the top of his lungs"I want some ramen!"

Sarutobis palmed his face while Sasuke just ignored the disturbance completely, he had heard of the loudmouth already, but Shin and Teuchi almost had a heart attack from the kid coming in.

Teuchi burst out of the kitchen, readily nervous to take the kids order as he nervously looked at the other adults.

"It'll take a few minutes Naruto"Teuchi says as he writes up the blonde's gigantic order.

"I wish ramen could be made faster"Naruto sighs.

Shin had recognized the kid in an instant, it wasn't hard remembering the orange jumpsuit.

"_This was that kid that got those ANBU guys"_Shin figured, he looked down at his half-finished ramen, and slid it over to the kid.

"I'm pretty much full kid"Shin shrugged as he began to play with the chopsticks in his hand "You can have mine"

"Thanks!"Naruto said grabbing an extra pair of chopsticks from the table"Itadakimasu!"

Shin was treated to a sight that would haunt him to the day he died.

Naruto eating ramen.

It was horrifying, he could almost swear the child's jaw unhinged, it had suddenly reminded him of someone he met years ago who ate ramen just as terrifyingly.

The kid was done in an instant, ready for another bowl that hadn't come yet, but it looked like Shin's bowl would tide him over for now.

"Thanks again"Naruto says with a noodle hanging out of his mouth.

Other than the how the kid ate he seemed to be a small little ball of happiness and energy, it was infectious to the point that even Shin found himself smiling just looking at the kid.

Until he noticed a small bruise on the side of the kids head.

"Hey kid"Shin asks getting Naruto's attention"You get hit with a boulder or something"Shin jokes trying to get Naruto to tell them.

"No"Naruto says rubbing the place near his temple where the rock left the bruise."One of the villagers threw a rock at me"

Shin had thought he was joking, but for the first moment since he met the kid he saw a troubled expression on his face, He was either a good actor or he was telling the truth, he gave a sidelong glance at Sarutobi, who had the same troubled expression on his face.

The boys expression had changed back to happy as soon as a bowl or two of ramen had been dropped in front of him, Shin had turned away this time facing the Hokage trying to avoid seeing the same horror he had seen a moment ago.

"_Hell, I can still hear it"_Shin thinks as Naruto eats ramen behind him.

He looked at Sasuke, he had stayed out of the conversation for a bit, it wasn't surprising that the boy had been a quiet one, you didn't become a talkative person after your clan got massacred.

He looked to Sarutobi, only to find the old man avoiding his gaze suddenly trying to hide something from him. Was he ashamed of what happened to Naruto? I would be too if a random civilian threw a rock at the boy, but why isn't he doing anything about it right now?

Shin stopped hearing Naruto's eating and turned back around to the satisfied little guy, he had put away a ton of ramen for a kid his age. If he didn't do it in a way that looked like he unhinged his jaw then Shin might have been impressed.

"Whats you name squirt?"Shin asks innocently enough as he began to twirl his chopsticks in his hand.

"Naruto Uzumaki!"Naruto boasts as he gets up to leave"and I'm not a squirt, someday I'm going to be the Hokage of this village!"

The chopsticks in Shins hand broke.

Naruto Uzumaki.

Uzumaki.

The boy was gone by the time Shin turned violently towards the Third Hokage, the mans stone face had received his gaze this time around, the anger in Shin was obviously plain for anyone to see, the only person who didn't notice this was the boy sitting between them, eating his ramen quietly.

"Sasuke, I think ill go with the Third now to sign those papers"Shin says in a clear calm monotone voice"Can you make it home on your own?"

Sasuke simply nodded to the older Uchiha as Sarutobi left a small bit of folded bills to pay for the food.

Both Shin and the Hokage hadn't taken their eyes of each other as they both shushined away.

* * *

_"He's interesting"_Sasuke thought to himself."He's kinda diffrent, makes me wonder why I've never heard of him"

Sasuke thought that it might be interesting having another Uchiha, one with Sharingan around him to teach him how to gain it himself.

"_My first great step towards my brother"_

* * *

The Hokage's office was usually an extremely calm place, mostly filled with tons of paperwork and scrolls from other countries.

As soon as Shin had teleported in with Hiruzen Sarutobi only a second behind him the place felt like a war zone.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI!?"Shin yells at the tops of his lungs at the Hokage.

Shin could not believe he had been lied to this much, he had looked for sliver of hope here, he had found some, his brother and Sasuke, but the one thing he hated was things like this being kept from him.

"You lied to me Sarutobi-

"- I did not lie to you"The Third interrupted"I simply did not inform you-"

"-lying by omission then!"Shin argues back to the aging Kage" That boy is Kushina and Minato's son isn't he?"

* * *

Sarutobi knew it might have come down to this, he had just not expected it to come so soon, Naruto showing up to Ichiraku's today had been completely off unplanned.

"Yes he is"Sarutobi answers."I didn't tell you for the same reason he doesn't know"

"He doesn't know either?!"Shins mouth was agape"How in the blue hell did you pull that off?"

He saw Shin begin to figure it out as he looked at him"Its not just the kid either, nobody knows do they?"

Sarutobi didn't like the look Shin was giving him, the respect was disappearing from it by the second, making him more liable to do anything in front of the Hokage.

So Sarutobi released a bit of his killer intent, not enough to really effect Shin, just enough to give him a cold sweat.

* * *

To bad he had underestimated Shins fury.

Shin stood his ground just as angry if not angrier at the old man, he knew he wouldn't get anywhere unless he did something drastic.

"I'm going to go tell the boy"Shin said preparing to shunsin away before Sarutobi stopped him.

"If you do that you'll be committing treason against Konoha"Sarutobi tells him.

"What?"Shin looks back at the Hokage in stunned disbelief" Telling that boy his father was the man who saved this village is treason? Since when Sarutobi?"

* * *

Hiruzen was having a hard time keeping Shin controlled at the moment, he didn't want to kill or imprison Shin, up until now things had been perfect with this little deal, now the whole thing was ready to crumble around him.

"_Sometimes you have to play your ace from the beginning of the game_"He thought remembering the euphemism one of his students had taught him about gambling.

"Your being a hypocrite Shin"Sarutobi says just as Shin is about to flicker away.

* * *

It was the way the old man had said it that had stopped him from channeling his chakra in, he said it like he knew something.

"What are you talking about?"

"You says its important that Naruto knows who his father is correct?"

Shin nods angrily, where was the old man going with this?

"Tell me then, what does Sasuke know of his father then?"

Shins hands had slacked as his eyes went wide in disbelief.

The old bastard had figured it out, and not only that had confirmed Shin's darkest suspicion.

"So that's how you want to play it huh?"a dirty smile appears on Shins face in front of Sarutobi's blackmail"Well then its seems I have no choice-

* * *

Sarutobi visibly relaxed for a moment, he hated to use a weapon like blackmail, but sometimes a situation like this deemed it.

-But to tell you to go fuck yourself"Shin finishes.

Sarutobi's eyes went wide, he had underestimated Shins commitment to his old friends, and to a child he had not even met before today.

"_Teaches me to use Tsunade's gambling advice"_The Third tells himself.

Shin prepared again to shunsin away but Sarutobi stopped him.

"Wait damn it!"Sarutobi says holding his hands up"Fine! You win, just sit down and lets talk about this"

The Third Hokage exhausted from the argueing, took his hat off and sits at his desk while he lights his pipe"What I'm about to tell you is an S-class secret..."

* * *

**Authors Note: If anyone cares Shins age at this exact moment in the story he is 30 years old, and yes that would make Danzo in his late thirties when Shin was born.**

**This is my first Fanfiction I've ever actually posted, so please be gentle with me.**

**And remember:I dont own Naruto, everyone else just thinks I do.**

**P.S:Please Review! I need the criticism.**


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